NICOLA Sturgeon will intensify her demand for a separate immigration policy for Scotland in the coming months amid fears that a 'Brexodus' of EU workers will hit Scottish living standards.
The First Minister is drafting "detailed proposals" for "different immigration procedures" for Scotland to present to the UK Government later this year.
Ms Sturgeon attacked the Conservatives' "infuriating" drive to restrict freedom of movement by pulling Britain out of the European single market.
It came as she called on Scotland's businesses to come up with the hi-tech products that will shape the future, as she announced £45 million of extra public funding for research and development work.
With economies across the world facing changes such as the move away from oil and gas and the increased use of robots and automation, she said she wanted Scotland "not only to embrace but to lead the key technological and social changes".
The economy will be "very much at the heart" of her government's plans for the coming year, she pledged.
But turning her attention to Europe, she declared that a hard Brexit will directly impact on Scottish living standards by depriving the economy of young workers, at a time when an ageing population will require carers and taxpayers to prop up an increasingly overstretched health service, she suggested.
Speaking in Prestwick, she said: "One area where Brexit could make action impossible, rather than just very difficult, is in relation to Scotland’s demographic challenge.
"In recent decades, of the 35 countries in the OECD, Scotland has had the fourth lowest rate of population growth. We’ve done a bit better in recent years, and of course much of that is due to EU migration. However the UK as a whole has had significantly higher population growth than us.
"That will, over time, directly affect our living standards. It means that fewer working age people will support the pensions and healthcare of a larger retired population. That will have inevitable consequences for our productivity and for our public services.
"That’s why the UK government’s approach to Brexit is so infuriating. It is abandoning something that Scotland’s economy benefits hugely from – our membership of the Single Market – in order to restrict something else which Scotland’s economy needs: freedom of movement for EU workers.
"The UK government already accepts – in practice, as well as in principle – the idea that different parts of the UK can adopt different immigration procedures.
"It allows seven cities in the north of England to use special procedures for people wanting to work in technology industries. We believe that it’s appropriate for Scotland to have special flexibility, too.
"We will table detailed proposals on both the case for that and how it would work later this year.
"In doing so, we will seek to work constructively with other political parties.
"After all, there is a strong cross-party consensus in the Scottish Parliament about the benefits of immigration. If that consensus counts for anything with the UK government, it must surely mean that we can come to an arrangement that meets Scotland’s needs and priorities."
The UK Government has not been receptive to Ms Sturgeon’s calls for a separate immigration policy thus far.
Leading Brexiteer Michael Gove suggested the Scottish Parliament could control immigration after Brexit during the referendum campaign.
Ms Sturgeon accused him of telling “a fib and a half” at the time, and he has indeed appeared to roll back on the pledge since he was returned to the Cabinet in Theresa May’s post election reshuffle.
Ruth Davidson has called on the UK Government to rethink its goal of reducing net migration below 100,000, sparking opposition claims that the Tories are in “open warfare” over immigration.
Scottish Labour supported the devolution of immigration powers to Holyrood under Kezia Dugdale, but the party’s future direction is now unclear after Ms Dugdale resigned on Tuesday — just days after UK leader Jeremy Corbyn publicly distanced himself from Scottish Labour’s immigration proposals.
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